For Ellia, Forever Ago
by Angryhamsterenergy
Summary: Ellia Abbott embarks on her sixth year at Hogwarts. Its 1976, there's a dark power growing outside the castle walls and she's determined to finally figure out the mystery of Remus Lupin. HIATUS
1. I For Ellia, Forever Ago

Ellia Abbott embarks on her sixth year at Hogwarts. Its 1976, there's a dark power growing outside the castle walls and she's determined to finally figure out the mystery of Remus Lupin.

Remus/OC

 _Published ~ 21/08/2019_


	2. II Epigraph

_Ellia Abbott embarks on her Sixth year at Hogwarts. Its 1976, there's a dark power growing outside the castle walls and she's determined to finally figure out the mystery of Remus Lupin._

 _Remus/OC_

* * *

 **Moon drunk monster,**

 **Beautiful and strange,**

 **Howl your melancholy question,**

 **And tell me**

 **which you dread more-**

 **the echo or the answer.**

 _Unknown_

 **Two roads diverged in a wood,**

 **and I—**

 **I took the one less travelled by** **,**

 **And that has made all the difference.**

 _Robert Frost_

* * *

Published - 21/08/2019


	3. III An Interrupted Interaction

_Oh! Unleash the Soul in me! Inspire me anew to make this life an adventure worth living!_

* * *

 **Ellia 1976**

 **An Interrupted Interaction**

The sunrise usually went unnoticed through the windows of the sixth-year Gryffindor girls dormitories; but today it was all Ellia Abbott could focus on. She hadn't bothered to shut the curtains the night before and golden light now filled the dark room, illuminating the dusty air. Listening to Mary McDonald's snores, she watched lying on her back, as her books emerged and faded into shadow - as if the light was giving the room a gentle heart beat.

It was barely 7 o'clock and soon she knew she would be able to hear the rumblings of life from the common room below as the younger years prepared for their first day back at Hogwarts after the long summer.

Ellia could almost feel the excitement of being a child again, eager to start exploring the world of magic for the first time. It felt like only yesterday that she had been a third year like her sister Sophia, with nothing to lose and the entire magical world at her fingers. She guessed even as she started her sixth year at Hogwarts she hadn't lost all of that wonder yet.

"What time is it?" Lily Potter groaned in the bed next to her. Her flaming red hair was the only part of her that Ellia could see in the morning glow.

"Too early," Dorcas Meadows moaned from across the room.

Ellia laughed, her voice still marred by sleep, "You've got that right."

"We definitely should have slept earlier than we did last night," Dorcas continued, pushing some Berty Botts Every Flavoured Beans wrappers from her bed.

"And I shouldn't have eaten so much at the feast, " Marlene huffed, "I feel like an inflated goblin."

The blonde haired girl jumped from her covers as she was forced to dodge a flying pillow sent her way from Dorcas' bed, "Oh shut up.. " the latter rolled her eyes, "We all know Robby couldn't keep his eyes off you."

Ellia grinned, Robert Wood and Marlene had been dating since the beginning of fifth year and still seemed to be going strong despite the formers almost obsessive fascination with Quidditch.

"Well, if you tried you could get a boyfriend too Dorcas, " Marlene scoffed,"Besides, that's not true."

"Yes it is." All her roommates, including Mary whose face was still squished into her pillow, chimed together, ignoring her denial.

"Honestly Marls, he looks at you like he's constantly watching the best Quidditch match he's ever seen." Ellia stated, appreciating Lily's knowing grin at her comparison whilst begrudgingly sitting up to join Mary and Dorcas in the quest to get ready for the day.

"But he barely wrote me at all this summer," Marlene stated, "What if he doesn't like me anymore?"

"I'm sure he was just busy." Lily comforted, "I only got one letter from Ellia over the summer and you don't see me complaining."

Ellia smiled sheepishly as she shoved her head through her new school jumper. "Sorry, it's hard to send the family owl on a thousand mile journey from the South of France to the outskirts of London."

"But you two aren't in a relationship." Marlene noted, slipping on her shoes.

"Oh, I don't know, I think I'd call us more than just aquaintences - wouldn't you Lil?" Ellia joked.

Marlene shook her head,"It's not the same and you know it."

As the girls continued to get ready, the sun completely filled their round room. By about half 7 they were all ready to head down for breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Seriously though Marley," Lily began as they walked the dorm staircase together. "I'm sure it was just the distance - things will be back to normal in no time."

The girl hummed non-commitedly before taking off towards the great Hall with Mary.

"I give it two weeks before she's finally broken up with him." Dorcas murmered to Ellia, (lily promptly struggled to stifle her laugh in her robes) "You coming?" She continued, eager to catch up with the others. Ellia was about to nod when Lily pulled her to a halt,"Hang on a second let me grab a few books before we go."

"Ill catch up with you." Ellia assured Dorcas who promptly followed the others out of the Portrait hole.

"I'll just be a second," Lily chimed next to her, unknowingly pushing her towards Marcus Davis, a seventh year who was cutting across the common room as if he'd been waiting for her.

"Hey Abbott." He grinned, standing a little too close for Ellia's liking, "Did you have a good summer? You're really looking great!" Despite Marcus' good looks and Scottish accent (which most of Ellia's friends adored) ; she'd always found Marcus a little gross. Stepping away from him slightly, she masked her uncomfortableness with a wide smile.

"Yeah thanks - How are you?"

"Brilliant! I spent the summer abroad," he bragged, "we flew to South Africa to visit my uncle who studies marine biology."

"That's a long way to fly," Ellia grimaced, remembering her less than pleasant experiences with broomsticks in the past.

A look of confusion crossed Marcus' face before he realised that Ellia was not on the same page as him, "Oh no! We flew there in a muggle contraption called an aeroplane - the journey was only a few hours."

Ellia winced at her mistake, remembering that Marcus' parents were both muggles and therefore likely unaware of the wizarding methods of travel.

"Ahh makes sense..." she smiled, mentally chiding herself, "Was there something you wanted?"

''Oh yes! I was wondering if you wanted to get together sometime and.. you know.. study?''

A look of confusion crossed Ellia's face. Never before had anyone asked her to... study? - and to say she was less than keen to spend anytime longer than necessary in Marcus' presence would be an understatement but she didn't want to hurt his feelings so she hummed a non-committal "umm sure?" perching on the edge of one of the sofas to put some more safety distance between them. Marcus looked hopeful until she continued: "Although we don't take a lot of the same subjects anymore and I don't really-"

"-Hey El!" Her sister snapped her attention away from the blonde haired boy in front of her, "Have you seen my red socks?" Ellia grinned widely at her interruption and focussed her attention on the younger girl.

"Um I think Mum put them in my trunk- why?" She prolonged.

Sophia frowned impatiently, almost bouncing on the spot, "They're my lucky socks! I won't survive the day without them!"

"Well, you can go and find them in my dorm," she waved at the stairs and watched as her little sister quickly disappeared up them. When she turned back Marcus was gone. Weird, she thought, but thankful that she didn't need to awkwardly interact with him any longer.

Not too long later her sister bounced back down the stairs,

"So... Did that guy just ask you out?" Sophia grinned when she joined Ellia's side, red socks in hand. "Oooh he did - you're blushing- wait till I tell Mum!"

"Am not." She refused, hitting her sisters hands away as she tried to point out her non-existent blush. "In fact, I'm not really sure if he did ask me out."

Sophia rolled her eyes, but accepted her sisters refusal as her friends called her over to them. No doubt they wanted to get down to the great hall before the first lessons of term began.

"See you later okay?" Sophia asked, making her way towards the back of the fat lady's portrait.

Nodding Ellia shouted after her "Oi squirt dont forget to write to Mum tonight!"

Her sister gave a wave of her hand then was gone and Ellia perched herself more comfortably on the arm of the common room sofa, waiting for Lily to re-emerge from their dorm.

It wasn't long before the redhead came happily towards her," I'm ready." She grinned and together they made their way to the hall. Ellia almost forgetting her interrupted interaction with Marcus Davis.

* * *

"Morning Sirius. Had a good Summer?" Ellia's question almost went unnoticed by the aristocratic looking boy as she perched herself opposite him on the table. Lily had abandoned her to catch up with a few of her prefect friends and the so-called marauder was the only other sixth year sat at the Gryffindor table.

For a second Sirius grimaced (remembering the unfortunate events within the Black household that had taken place in late July) but Ellia missed his dejected look as she reached for the marmalade across the table.

''Just peachy," Sirius forced a smile,"Yours?"

"Long." She grunted. It wasn't that she didn't love her parents and sister but, after seven weeks in the South of France she missed the long nights with Dorcas, Mary, Marlene and Lily; the nights where they would chat until one by one they would fall asleep.

As expected from the Marauders, it wasn't long before James, Peter and Remus joined their best friend at the table. Each of them looked slightly bleary eyed and confused at Ellia's presense as they sat down beside her.

"Oi Evans," Sirius began to call to the redhead as Lily made her way towards Ellia from the Hufflepuff table, "had any time to consider going out with James this summ- umghf!" Sirius flinched as he received a swift punch from his best mate. "What was that for?" he frowned.

"I've given up." James admitted quietly, eyes quickly shifting to make sure Lily hadn't heard Sirius' remark "Evans clearly doesn't like me so I'm going to give it a rest this year."

Ellia noted the confused looks on Sirius and Peter's faces and she realised that they, like her, had never seen this coming. Quite honestly Ellia never thought she'd hear the words 'Evans clearly doesn't like me' ever coming from Potter's mouth. There clearly is just a first time for everything, she thought, observing a forlorn look fall across James face.

In fact, now that he'd mentioned it Ellia noticed the strange lack of his bright smile and awful jokes at the breakfast table.

"Really Prongs?" Sirius asked, utterly confused at his best friends change of heart.

Remus jumped in, "I think it's good mate, move on with you're life and if she does like you she'll realise what she's missing."

Ellia watched as her pretty red haired friend moved down the table. She for one would be the most surprised at James' change of heart.

"Hey," Lily greeted as she sat down, unaware of their conversation as Remus and Peter nodded to her over their breakfast. "What did Davis want earlier?"

"To study I think." Ellia grabbed another slice of toast.

"Did he ask you to study or was he trying to ask you out- because Lisa McDormand-"

"-the Hufflepuff?"

"Mh-hmm" Lily confirmed, "Well, she was pretty upset over there and said that she asked Marcus out on the train but he rejected her because someone else had caught his eye." Lily nudged her almost painfully in the side.

"And you think it's me?" Ellia asked.

"Well you did get bloody hot over the summer - I mean I'd want to date you."

Ellia scoffed, "And you wouldn't have before?"

Lily sighed, "What I'm trying to say is that you're not just cute now El, you're sexy and you should make the most of it."

While Ellia would be the first to admit that she'd changed over the summer, she was unconvinced.

"I don't really know... I don't think Davis is the one for me." she shrugged, "Anyway, Soph interrupted him and then he vanished."

"Wait." A new voice cut into their conversation. "Hot Marcus asked you out?" Sirius Black's voice was loud and Ellia glared at him, catching Remus eye as he almost choked on his drink.

"Hot Marcus?" Ellia repeated, confused.

Sirius just wiggled his eyebrows and focused his eyes on the brown haired girl sat opposite him.

"Question is... Did she say yes?" Peter asked.

"Well said Wormy," Sirius replied, slapping his friend on the back and leaning closer to Ellia." So.. Did you?"

"Well... not really?"

"Not really? " Remus repeated, raising an eyebrow while Sirius laughed and asked,

"Why not?"

Ellia glanced at them sheepishly,

"Well I didn't really think he was asking me out... I just thought he was trying to be nice"

"Trust me," Sirius scoffed, "Marcus wants more than just a friendly study session."

The group collectively glanced up the table to see Davis already staring at them and Remus chuckled,

"I think you dodged a bullet there Abbott."

Ellia nodded and grabbed an apple as Professor Mcgongall gave out the sixth year's timetables. She audibly groaned when Lily slid hers across the table."You've got to be joking me," she huffed frowning at the layout of her lessons.

"I have double Astrology every Monday night."

"You take Astrology?" Sirius asked, once again unusually interested in her.

Ellia nodded "Mh-hmm... and Ancient Runes."

Sirius nodded, slowly sharing a look with James.

Swapping her timetable with Lily, they quickly marked their joint free periods, both pleased that while they didn't take all of the same subjects, they would share their potions, defence and charms teachers this year.

"Well," Lily grinned after they'd finished up their breakfast and said goodbye to the Marauders. 'Let's hope this year is going to be a good one."

Ellia nodded, yes she mused something inside telling her this was going to be her best Hogwarts year yet.

* * *

2,270 words :)

Next update coming soon!


	4. IV A Tricky Problem

_Courage, dear heart._

* * *

One two three, one two three, one two three, Dorcas struggled to keep count of how many times she was supposed to be stirring the potion in front of her. Sitting through one of Slughorn's lessons was always a hardship but having a double period of Potions on the first day of term felt like a little slice of hell just for her. The only positive was the three girls she was sharing her desk with as Lily, Ellia and Marlene had managed to grab a table for them at the back of the room as soon as they'd walked into their lesson with the Slytherins.

As Slughorn gave rambling instructions on the correct way to chop Shreikingfigs, Dorcas turned to her best friend.

"So I heard you rejected Marcus Davis this morning." She prompted. Ellia, whose eyes were already beginning to shut across the table, groaned.

"Who said that? Nothing happened!" She ignored the disbelieving looks she received from Dorcas and Lily, "In fact we barely talked!"

Marlene scoffed, "That's not what I heard. Robby told me that Davis is already planning another way to ask you out..."

Ellia rolled her eyes, "I hope not."

"What wrong with him anyway?" Lily chimed, "He's hot-"

"-He's gross." Ellia corrected, nodding along to Slughorn's teaching instructions as he looked their way. "Besides, unlike some people," she nudged Marlene with her foot gently under the table, "I don't need a guy in my life to keep me happy."

Marls rolled her eyes but grinned anyway before their conversation was cut short as the class began moving, picking up more ingredients in pairs; forcing the girls apart.

"Do you think Potter is being weird?" Lily asked once the had all reunited, thankfully their lesson had gone quickly with Marlene and Lily's shreikingfig concoction winning the most praise from Slughorn (which was to be expected considering the Professors love for Lily's approach and dedication to Potions).

Scanning her eyes across the dungeon as they packed their bags Dorcas noted that James and Sirius had their heads bowed over a large piece of parchment on the table across from them.

For a moment she thought she saw some of the ink move and assumed it was some kind of plan for their first prank of the year. That, or it the paper that maintained their attention was clearly some kind of moving drawing.

"He has been awfully quiet." Dorcas confirmed watching as Remus and Peter joined their best friends, studying the obscured parchment with puzzled faces. Watching her best friend, she noted the way Ellia shrugged in a strangely non-committed way before moving to exit the classroom. Confused, Dorcas was glad enough to follow, eager to escape the cold dungeon.

Hoping that her friends hadn't noticed her silence Ellia kept her mouth shut about Potter's breakfast confession. She thought it would be best for Lils to find out for herself that James had supposedly given up on wooing her. Truthfully, she didn't think his silence would last long. After being a friend to both of them for six years she believed they would actually suit each other (a belief strongly rejected by Lily herself whenever Ellia suggested it)

"Well I hope they're planning to Prank the Slytherins." She could hear Marlene groan as the blonde swiftly followed her out of the dungeon, "That arsehole Lestrange tried to trip me up this morning! I swear he's had it in for me ever since I refused to go on that Hogsmeade trip with him in fourth year..."

The blonde continued her story as they left the dungeons behind them, each of them eager to see the sunlight and breathe the fresh air once more.

* * *

"So what did you get up to this summer? I really did hear nothing from you. " Lily asked as they made their way to their final period, Transfiguration, later that day. Much to Ellia's dismay Dorcas had left them to revise Arithmancy in her free period, leaving her alone with her noisiest dorm-mates: Lily and Marlene.

"Honestly my fun family holiday was pretty boring." Ellia answered, lowering her voice as they entered McGonagall's lesson. They sat at the back, lowering their voices as the rest of the Gryffindor charms class filtered into the classroom after them.

In truth, the only reason the Abbott's had gone to France was for her father's work. Unbeknownst to her mother, he'd been sent to look for a dark wizard who'd started raising pureblood followers across Europe. It was safe to say that most of the fun had been sucked out of the holiday once her father's ministry work had been exposed.

Lily frowned, "That's annoying, we really did miss you. Even Dad admitted Summer just wasn't the same without you visiting this year." Ellia smiled, Mr and Mrs Evans were equally as fascinated with her, as a wizard, as she was with them as muggles. Since third year she had enjoyed spending some time with them over the summer to appreciate both Lily's company and the strange muggle way of life. In truth it was part of the reason she had decided to take muggle studies as a NEWT.

"Did you learn any French?" She questioned, ever the eager student.

"Oh she's very familiar with the French tongue." Marlene interrupted; the implication of her words not being missed by Lily whose eyes completely snapped to focus on Ellia. Marlene received a swift glare across the table as McGonagall started her lesson.

" What!?" Lily gasped quietly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"There wasn't much to tell!" Ellia defended. "I met him at one of the wizarding galas my mother forced us to go to and that was that."

"You should have written me!" Now it was Ellia who was one the receiving end of a glare from her friend.

"I'm sorry! But what was I supposed to say?" Ellia asked, "Hey Lil! Had a really good snog last night, wish you were here?"

"Would have been better than telling me at the back of McGonagall's class!" Lily promptly fell silent as their stern head of house looked down her nose in their general direction.

Marlene snorted dryly next to them, feigning it as a cough as McGonagall turned her glare their way.

" Well next time I get any action you'll be the first to know." Ellia muttered, settling her books under her desk hurriedly, ready to focus on the lesson at hand.

* * *

As the Marauders sat in the common room that evening, they stuck to the corner of the room, hugging the chairs nearest to the great window from which great pools of moonlight seeped.

"We could explore the east side of the forest. I've heard a pack of unicorns has settled there for the winter." Peter suggested quietly, pointing to an Eastern section of the map which James had splayed out in front of him. Over his book Remus could see a small clearing that seemed appropriate for a herd of unicorns and wondered if Professor Kettleburn had encouraged them to stay on school grounds for his winter lessons.

Planning their monthly escapades into the woods often bought great fun for the four Gryffindor boys but today the few faults that had emerged in the design of their so called 'Marauders Map' put a damper on their plans.

"In order to plan the route, we need the map to work completely." Sirius sighed, pointing to the three sections of the map that they had been having trouble with since the end of their fifth year.

"I don't understand." James huffed, "Why isn't the location charm working?"

"Maybe we need something stronger?" Peter twiddled his wand in his hand, almost dropping it on the floor.

"The answer's in this book, I know it.'' Sirius reassured, "I just can't get this translation, Moony can you help?"

Remus grimaced, unsure in his capacity of translating Ancient Runes. "I could give it a try but, I can't be certain." He pointed to the top of the page he was reading, "This is a binding charm... But this and this..." He traced the dark coloured, embossed runes with his long fingers. "It should tell us how to charm the names to walk with their life counterparts around the grounds...we'd have to ask someone else to translate it."

"Shame we can't ask Madame Pince to let us into the restricted section." James huffed, "there might be a book we can use in there."

Remus shrugged, "What about the cloak?"

"It could work, but without the map we can't be sure Peeves won't ruin it for us... It's just not fair! If we were girls, she'd let us in." James huffed, "...she lets Lily in there all the time."

Remus smiled, albeit not letting James see as his friend continued to wish his life away dreaming of Lily Evans. Despite his seemingly steadfast resolve whilst discussing Lily to Ellia Abbott at the breakfast that morning, Remus felt uncertain about his change of heart. Despite this, he could see how Lily's rejection was slowly wearing away at James and encouraged his change in direction nevertheless.

"That's because Lily's smart." Pete snorted,

"-and she has yet to drop a stink bomb in the library." Remus' addition caused the brown-haired marauder to roll his eyes.

"That was one time!"

"Speaking of the girls," Sirius grinned at the turn in conversation, "When did Abbott get hot?"

There was a slight pause, from his seat Remus could see the girl in question talking with Dorcas across the room. During their first years at Hogwarts, Ellia had been a moderately shy but intelligent Pureblood who spent the majority of her time studying in the library with Dorcas Meadows, Lily Evans and the other Gryffindor girls. Despite being friends with Sirius since they were children, Remus hadn't thought twice about her until their OWLS when Ellia had joined his Runes class and he had been forced to acknowledge that she had grown into a quietly confident young woman. Coincidentally it was also around this time that Remus had begun to take notice of the way her hair fell naturally in brown, golden curls and the way her slightly freckled nose scrunched whenever she disapproved of something her friends had said.

Remus didn't doubt that it was true that she had changed over the summer, she was clearly now not the small nerdy girl they'd known since first year. Her hair was shorter than it had been the year before, now resting on her shoulders, its length exposing her neck and shoulders in a way that made Remus tense. Something in her stunning blue eyes gleamed with mischief and amusement as she rambled to her best friend.

"She's always been attractive." Remus said calmly, although James immediately settled his attention on him, noticing the way Remus gripped the corner of his book tightly as he struggled to ignore his stare.

James rolled his eyes, "Hey... Moony you never mentioned that she was in your Runes class."

"...Yes, she's the best in our year-" Despite the fact that there was only a handful of sixth years In the class, that was still saying something about her talent. Remus' eyes lifted to see that all three of his friends were already looking at him expectantly. Peter cleared his throat as all three boys leant forward,

"Oh Merlin, Please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking." Remus instantly protested, "We can't!"

His reservations were ignored by his best friends, whose faces had unanimously brightened at their shared idea.

"Why not Moony? You _just_ said she was the best!" The eagerness in Sirius' tone caused Remus to close his book and sit up. There was no way he was letting them expose the Marauder's Map to anyone outside of their inner circle, not after all the great lengths they'd gone to to hide its true usefulness from onlookers.

"Ellia doesn't want anything to do with us." Remus knew his excuse was poor but hoped that Sirius and James would accept it anyway.

But, James shook his head, unconvinced, "But she couldbe the only one who can actually help us!"

"No. I don't want her to know about... My furry little problem." Remus' sighed, glancing once more around the room, his eyes settling on the Gryffindor girls, "Besides I hardly know her! I can't just spring out of nowhere and drag her to the restricted section - she'll think I'm mad!"

His friends sat back at the determination in Remus' voice, a little confused and bemused at his conviction.

"Are you blushing Moony?" James face ripped into a shit-eating grin.

"Of course not." Remus sat down once again, trying not to sound flustered. "There just has to be a simpler way... we can't risk what we have."

The Marauders fell into silence once more, drawing themselves closer to the map.

"So… _Can_ we explore the East side of the forest next week?" Peter asked, bringing the topic back to the looming presence of the next full moon just around the corner.

"Sure Wormtail…why not?" Sirius shrugged, albeit not completely satisfied with the progress they had made that evening.

* * *

3137 words :D


End file.
